Fear of water - am I daft?

Even Chance

Even Chance

Well-Known Member
Joined
15 Jun 2010
Messages
628
Location
Caithness
Visit site
Hi folks.

I have a particular fear of falling into water. Either shallow or deep, it doesnt matter. I just have a fear of the unknown. Am I alone in this? Have anybody else felt like this and overcome their fear?
I sail my E-Boat and feel no fear.
Its prevented me from dinghy sailing, but Ive now bought a Mirror Dinghy and nearly have it ready for the summer.
I have a 3mm wetsuit and 50N bouyancy aid for the possible immersion.
Ive been sailing for 20+ years, and know the ropes, and my reaction times are very quick to respond when gusts hit etc. This means I hope I can keep the Mirror upright in the lighter winds speeds I plan on sailing it in.
Its just this niggling fear thats driving me nuts.

Help please......:(
 
If it is of any help I didn't like diving into the swimming pool, jumping fine, swimming fine but diving gulp.

I overcame it by forcing myself to dive into the pool at the deep end a couple of times, huge bellyflops but now not a problem, not that I've been near a pool for years.

My guess is that once you start sailing that dinghy and falling in, which inevitably you will, your fears will evaporate. At least I hope they do for you, best of luck.
 
Even Chance said:
I have a 3mm wetsuit and 50N bouyancy aid for the possible immersion.
Click to expand...

It's not a possibility. it's a definite. And you need to know capsize drills for a dinghy, so why not practice them in calm waters beforehand?

Good luck on overcoming this - I for one am not a good swimmer so I get where you're coming from!
 
Cheers guys.
Ive gone through the capsize drill in my head over and over, and hopefully thought about every eventuality. I'm an excellent swimmer, so no problems there. The only thing holding me back is the fear. As we say up here, Im "keiching ma drawers"
I know I wont act silly when I do hit the water. I dont react like that in difficult situations, I stay cool and work my way through it methodically.
 
It depends on whether it is a real fear, rising to panic, or just an aversion. A lady friend of ours narrowly survived a near-drowning when she was a teenager and won't sail out of sight of land, which is illogical but understandable. It is possible but difficult to overcome a phobia by self-help. I seem to remember a good book about this by an Australian woman some years ago.

Me, I'm just averse to getting cold and wet. When we used to sail Fireflies in all weathers without buoyancy aids I became very adept at not capsizing. Maybe that was why I didn't win many races.
 
Even Chance said:
Cheers guys.
Ive gone through the capsize drill in my head over and over, and hopefully thought about every eventuality. I'm an excellent swimmer, so no problems there. The only thing holding me back is the fear. As we say up here, Im "keiching ma drawers"
I know I wont act silly when I do hit the water. I dont react like that in difficult situations, I stay cool and work my way through it methodically.
Click to expand...

Ah there's the problem, you need to go out pi$$ed as a rat then you'll be more relaxed.

That was a joke BTW ....
 
I believe it's wise to have a heathy respect for the water as it can take your life. My first watersports activity was scuba diving. My best advice would be to "stack the cards in your favour". By that I mean know what you're doing (training, practice & practice) and be appropriately equipped (wet suit, preferably dry suit, buoyancy aid) and so on. Dinghy sailing is great fun and "if you haven't capsized, you're not trying hard enough"

Being able to dry capsize well suggest that you're a lousy sailor but trying really hard (as I was before I moved to bigger boats). We occassionaly take a week's holiday at a dinghy sailing resort. Frankly, capsizing into warm, clear waters is one of the main reasons for wanting to go.

I think your fear is perfectly normal. Just follow some of the good advice already posted and I'm sure you'll be absoluetly fine. Have fun!
 
Can you swim? Is it the fear of the unknown in the water as you say or is it the fear of capsizing itself?

My father can't swim he started in Mirrors and sailed short distances along the coast only i.e. one hour out and then back again. He will not go on a ferry and is also scared of flying - what a sap my old man is :rolleyes: ;) He fell overboard in Lyme Regis harbour but luckily managed to hang on to the deck. My mother and I couldn't pull him up and we were beginning to panic as onlookers laughed at the spectacle. I lost my temper and hauled him up in anger!

Have to say basking sharks used to scare the **** out of me when I used to swim/surf in Cornwall as a kid let alone the odd sightings of actually dangerous sharks reported on the news :eek: Anyway I hope I have calmed you down now!
 
Last edited:
I can cope in deep water, it's where there is stuff I can't see that I'm going to be touching with my feet that I get the ebigeebies. All those, "don't go in the river there are branches and shopping trollies waiting to pull the unwary under" warnings must have worked.

It is possible to capsize a Mirror but it's not easy, you do need quite a lot of wind to do it, or break something, or both.

When you are doing your capsize drill, make sure you are in plenty of water. It's much harder to get the boat back over if the mast is stuck in the bottom. They float very high too, if there is a good breeze they sail quite fast on their side.
 
Theres some good info there, thanks.
The local dinghy club is holding a Mirror event this year to mark the design being 50 years old this year. I will hopefully be taking part in this, if they dont start wanting entry fees and membership of their expensive club that is! It will mean sailing in company with a safety boat present.

Other than that, Im on my own, unless I can convince a mate to use my tender with the 8hp outboard on to cover me as a kind of safety boat for my first few times in the dinghy. I will be sailing in Wick bay, which is a very unforgiving rocky shored bay. Maybe this is compounding the fear. Beaches always add a hint of safety in my mind. Dunno why.
 
Even Chance said:
Theres some good info there, thanks.
The local dinghy club is holding a Mirror event this year to mark the design being 50 years old this year. I will hopefully be taking part in this, if they dont start wanting entry fees and membership of their expensive club that is! It will mean sailing in company with a safety boat present.

Other than that, Im on my own, unless I can convince a mate to use my tender with the 8hp outboard on to cover me as a kind of safety boat for my first few times in the dinghy. I will be sailing in Wick bay, which is a very unforgiving rocky shored bay. Maybe this is compounding the fear. Beaches always add a hint of safety in my mind. Dunno why.
Click to expand...

Dont worry about capsizing a Mirror at least in moderate conditions. I have never capsized mine accidentally. A few times deliberately but never by accident.
 
VicS said:
Dont worry about capsizing a Mirror at least in moderate conditions. I have never capsized mine accidentally. A few times deliberately but never by accident.
Click to expand...

Thats more re-assuring! Thanks very much!
I dont intend on moving up to racing dinghys, I just got this nice Dinghy for £40, and want to use it! All the folks saying telling me I will spend a lot of time in the water may also be getting to me. Cheers.
 
awol said:
Look on immersion as a life extending tactic. It has been shown that regular voluntary exposure to cold water reduces the likelihood of debilitating cold shock when immersion is involuntary.
Click to expand...

Thats a good piece of advice, thanks. (Im a yes man too by the way! Love the avatar!)
 
Shakemeister said:
It's not a possibility. it's a definite.
Click to expand...

I'm trying to remember if I ever capsized my Mirror as a child. I can't remember doing so. I wouldn't rule it out, but if I ever did it would only have been once or twice. So no, I don't think it is a definite (though it's certainly wise to be prepared).

I used to sail it in shorts and a woolly jumper (and that was in the 90s, not the 50s!) so if the OP has a wetsuit he's already ahead of the game.

Pete
 
If I deliberately jump into water, I hold my nose. I really, really dislike doing it. However I have fallen in suddenly many times when dinghy sailing, (missed toestraps several times, trapeze wire broke twice, pitchpoled cat once, and umpteen windy-day leeward capsizes when planing). I also fell in very frequently when windsurfing - though I gave that up as too hard in the end.

Somehow an accidental fall-in is OK. I always came up spluttering, but no worse for wear, except once for a dislocated shoulder due to a jacket top catching on a shroud and the boat ploughing on for a while before stopping while I was dragging behind it in the water. It was the one occasion in nearly 40 years of dinghy sailing that I had real trouble self-rescuing.

I have had two Mirrors at various times, along with a string of other faster dinghies and cruisers. I don't think I ever capsized either of mine accidentally, but the very first thing I do in ANY dinghy is a series of deliberate capsizes and rightings, including from turtled.
 
Last edited:
I learnt to sail in Mirrors and like Pete only had a woolly jumper and a pair of shorts (early eighties), I still have one now for nostalgic reasons. I can honestly say I have never capsized my Mirror since I have been man-sized and I've been out in some pretty testy conditions too. (capsized plenty of other dinghies though). I put it down to the hideous experiences as an 10 year old being forced to do capsize drill in early April dressed in games kit on Langstone Harbour!! I always joke to my sailing buddies that if it did capsize the Mirror I'd probably just put my foot through the bottom of the bugger and swim for shore rather than fight to right her!!:p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top